An Advanced Placement Close Reading Strategy The Most Awesome Thing on the Planet

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An Advanced PlacementClose Reading
StrategyThe Most Awesome Thing on the Planet
SWIFTT
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Symbolism When an object or action stands for
more than it really is

• Look for characters, names, objects,
  actions,settings, or situations that could be
  symbolic

• The stars in The Sneetches represent differing
  status, or social class, among the Sneetches.
  Those Sneetches with stars were seen as superior
  among the beach dwellers. Since stars are not
  earned, but are only decorative, stars also stand
  for vanity, or beauty for its own status. Also,
  the character of McBean stands for all those who
  are willing to take financial advantage of people
  who are divided and thus vulnerable. One could
  sumise that McBean could symbolize the devil.

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Word Choice/Diction- The meaning behind the
authors choice of certain words. Words have
denotation and connotation.

• Word Choice Look for specific or unusual
  wording that could bring additional, or hidden
  meaning in the text.

• Suess uses the words friends when McBean talks
  to the Sneetches. This is McBeans way of
  persuading the Sneetches to spend more money in
  their search for superiority. The use of
  Star-belly and Plain-belly furthers whos the
  division among this population.

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Imagery the use of the five sense in writing to
create interest and paint a mental picture
(sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

• Imagery look for words or phrases that use the
  five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste).
  Things you can see with your eyes are not
  imagery. DESCRIBING how things look IS imagery.

• Suess uses the words cold and dark to
  describe the beaches that the plain-belly
  Sneetches are relegated to. This is not the usual
  mental picture of a beach. Suess is showing how
  isolated and miserable the beach can be.

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This is a cow for your entertainment. Enjoy!
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Figurative Language All the Englishy stuff and
literary terms and devices.

• Figurative Language Look for Literary terms and
  devices, especially when they create more
  meaningful writing and show you clues about
  characters or situations.

• There are many examples of Suesss use of
  onomatopoeia, such as, klonked, bonked, jerked,
  berked and bopped. Suess also uses rhyming as a
  natural device for childrens literature.

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Tone The writer has a particular attitude
towards the subject, he/she uses the other parts
of SWIFTT to transmit that attitude all those
elements create tone.

• Tone Figure out what the subject is (love,
  death, friendship) and find evidence to determine
  how the author feels about that subject. Try to
  pinpoint between one to three words that sum up
  his/her attitude.

• The writer obviously feels strongly about how
  vane and petty people can be. He may referring to
  racial, or socioeconomic issues. Yet he chooses a
  childrens story to illustrate his personal
  values. Give this evidence I believe that the
  following tone words would fit The Sneetches
  moralistic, optimistic.

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Theme The theme is the central idea, universal
meaning, or the moral to the story.

• Theme What is the writer trying to teach or
  show you about the world. The theme can be
  written in one sentence. There can be multiple
  themes. Themes can be found in fiction,
  nonfiction, poetry, music and art. Be CAREFUL
  that you are identifying the theme and not the
  subject. Friendship is not a theme. Friendship
  being more important than romantic love could be
  a theme. Themes MUST be backed up by evidence
  from the text to be correct.

• There are several themes in The Sneetches.
• Societys importance of physical beauty as a
  means of judgment is wrong.
• A divided society is a vulnerable society.
• Being victimized by a common evil can bring
  society together.